THE END OF FAWLTY TOWERS

Posted on 03/22/2016 | About Torquay, United Kingdom

Torquay is a seaside town in Devon, England. It is the English Riviera, home to the International Agatha Christie festival where Christie had a summer residence. It is also the town where the manager of a seaside hotel inspired a long running comedy series having been described as “the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met”.

British actor John Cleese and the troupe from Monty Python’s Flying Circus were staying at The Gleneagles hotel in 1971 when they met host Donald Sinclair (and his wife Beatrice) who was reportedly less than hospitable.Legend is that Sinclair had criticized Terry Gilliam’s table manners and removed a suitcase of Eric Idle’s, fearing that it might contain a bomb.The antics wore thin on the members of the comedy team who moved to a different lodging, but Cleese and his wife (at the time) Connie Booth remained at the hotel and five years later launched the comedy series Fawlty Towers.Sinclair sold the hotel in 1973 and it was renovated in 2006 by new owners; the Best Western hotel chain who closed the hotel permanently last year.Some of the townspeople are saddened because the hotel had continued to draw tourists who visited the hotel to enjoy Fawlty Towers’ memorabilia in the hotel reception area.The hotel will now be demolished and new retirement apartments will be built in its place.